Schweitzer developer notified of violations
The man developing a 10-unit subdivision above the Red Cricket Condominiums at Schweitzer Mountain has been issued state and federal violation notices after a mudslide from his property crashed into a condominium complex below.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality fined Gary Barnes $5,000 for not taking measures to ensure that excavated soil from his Bonner County property would not erode or be affected by melting snow runoff. Barnes is also accused of failing to obtain a construction permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pertaining to pollution control, and he faces federal fines as high as $32,500 per day, per violation until the issue is remediated.
On May 17, mud above the Red Cricket Condominiums smashed into portions of the condo’s foundation on the uphill side of the units and crashed through the garage level of the complex. The mud did not enter any living quarters, no residents were home and no vehicles were in the garage of the three-story complex when the slide happened.
A contractor has been working for about two weeks on shoring up the building and removing debris from the garage level, said Spencer Newton, chief of the Schweitzer Fire District.
“No insurance companies have stepped up to help fix the problem,” said Ray Clary, an attorney representing the Red Cricket Condominium Association, made up of owners of the units. Clary said that not even the association’s insurance company, the Ohio Casualty Group, will provide funds to fix the damage. He also said attorneys for Barnes have declined to work with him on the issue.
An attorney for Red Cricket’s insurance company was out of the office this week and unavailable for comment.
Mark Ellingson, an attorney representing the case on behalf of G.F. Barnes Construction Inc., said he knew little about the violation notices and had only recently received them for review.
When asked about Clary’s allegation that he was not working with the condo association to resolve the dispute, Ellingson said part of the reason is there “hasn’t been a lawsuit filed.”
“In my role I haven’t responded because I just received (the violation notices), and it’s a matter of seeing what my role is in that issue,” he said. “Right now it’s obviously a fairly complicated issue up there, and we’re still in the process of reviewing it.”
The next step is most likely civil litigation, Clary said, but he would not give a time frame for when a lawsuit may be filed, saying he needed to “reserve comment.”
Clary said he believed the notices of violation sent to Barnes send a clear message that the condominium association was the “innocent victim” of the Schweitzer slide.
“I think the sum and substance of those notices of violation were that it was wrongful to place the dirt on an area that was known to be unstable,” Clary said, “and it’s up to them to correct the situation. Either that or contest it, which they may very well do.”
According to the notices, state compliance officials observed that runoff water from Barnes’ construction site flowed down to the excavated pile of dirt and entered an unnamed tributary of Schweitzer Creek. The creek is a source of drinking water for Sandpoint, according to state Water Quality Officer June Bergquist.
Eva Chun, a compliance officer for the EPA, said in her notice to Barnes that the events and actions that occurred at the construction site constitute a violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act, and the agency is “reviewing the case for possible enforcement.” Clary said it has been difficult for some of the condo owners, who may not be able to afford to fix their condos without some type of help from insurers or other parties involved.
“Red Cricket,” he said, “is largely made up of middle-class people with modest means.”